Philippine E-Journals

The perceptions of organizing street dance competition in promoting domestic tourism

Awangku Hassanal Bahar Bin Pengiran Bagula | Janie Liew-tsonis | Charlie Albert Lasuin | Juliana Langgat | Toh Pei Sung

 

Abstract:

This article discusses the outcome of a research on tourism promotion through events where the survey was conducted at Borneo Street Dance (BSD) 2011 in Sabah, one of the states in Malaysia, which was organized by the Ministry of Tourism Malaysia. The event was held to promote domestic tourism and to attract youth participation in performing arts where they can showcase their talents and creativity. The findings of this research suggested that an event such as BSD is able to attract interest and participation among youth from all over the state and this contributed to the promotion of domestic tourism. The event is able to attract the youth’s interest to fill up their free time with beneficial and favourable activities while exposing them to ethnic diversity in highly diverse Malaysian Borneo states namely Sabah, Sarawak and the Federal Territory of Labuan. This is where the event also fosters tolerance and understanding about the diversity ethnic among the youth in the said states and thought to be the beneficial to domestic tourism. The research concluded that events such as BSD should be made as an annual event to enhance the promotion of domestic tourism industry in Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan among young travellers and VFR that tied up with the event, thus enhancing the sustainability of the tourism industry in Malaysian Borneo.